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from Jack Shafer:
Why we can’t stop watching the stupid presidential debates
The 2012 Presidential (and Vice Presidential) Debates, a four-part miniseries, will debut on televisions and computer screens around the world on Oct. 3 and continue weekly through the month. The program will feature presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in three episodes, and their understudies, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan, in one.
I can't promise excitement or even enlightenment: As viewers of The 2008 Presidential (and Vice Presidential) Debates and its antecedents will recall, the events resemble 90-minute quiz shows in which there are no correct answers, just strong opinions. We come to the debates expecting dramatic oratory and political persuasion, but don’t even get a spritz of hot air. That's because the debates are primarily designed to unite, not divide.
Highly formatted to begin with, this year's debates will be even more highly formatted, as Elizabeth Flock reported last week in U.S. News & World Report. The Commission on Presidential Debates – the cutout the two major parties have been using to run the debates since 1988 – has for the first time issued cheat sheets to the candidates listing what topics will be up for debate in their first meeting: the economy, healthcare, the role of government and governing. This will make the study and rehearsal sessions, in which the candidates spend hours practicing their debate sound bites, a lot easier.
As usual, the commission's debate rules are limiting enough to be called stringent. Open Debates, a non-profit advocacy that wants the debates released from the clutches of the Democrats and Republicans, complains of how "dreary" the events have become, comparing them at their worst to a joint press conference. In the first debate, each topic segment will run 15 minutes (there will be three "economy" segments). Moderator Jim Lehrer will begin each topic set with a question that the candidates get two minutes to answer, and at evening's end both contestants will get two minutes for a closing statement.
from The Great Debate:
Tax reform does not guarantee growth
One of the few things that President Obama and Mitt Romney are likely to agree on when they debate next week is the need for tax reform. Both candidates have backed streamlining America’s crazy-quilt tax code, and both have said that reforms could boost economic growth. Meanwhile, two key congressional committees held a rare bipartisan hearing last week – with lawmakers from both parties saying that tax reform is needed to rev up the economy.
Yet exactly how and why tax reform would spur growth is far from clear. Many proponents of reform, including Romney, want to lower tax rates while retaining the same level of revenue. But doing that means reducing major individual tax breaks that subsidize key sectors of the economy – including housing and healthcare. Long term, there are good arguments for whacking such subsidies, which tilt heavily in favor of affluent households and distort our economy. But curbing these freebies doesn’t offer a short-term economic fix and, in fact, could hurt growth.
from Tales from the Trail:
Romney’s problems with minority voters extend to Asians, study shows
Republican Mitt Romney's problems appealing to minority voters extends beyond blacks and Hispanics, with Asian-Americans also heavily favoring Democratic President Barack Obama's re-election on Nov. 6.
Among likely voters who are Asian American, 43 percent back Obama, compared with 24 percent for Romney. But there are still many out there to be won over, because a third - 32 percent - of those who are judged likely to cast ballots on Nov. 6 have not yet made up their minds, according to the National Asian American Survey, which organizers said was the largest such study of Asian American and Pacific Islanders' public opinion ever done in the United States.
from Breakingviews:
Percentage-mania builds confidence in 50-50 world
By Rob Cox and Edward Hadas
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.
The latest is 14.1. But Mitt Romney’s tax rate is only one of many touchstone percentages doing the rounds. The U.S. presidential hopeful has also contributed 47, the percentage of Americans he says are dependent on government handouts. Both those numbers have irritated a lot of people. The challenger would prefer that the focus shift to a number which embarrasses President Barack Obama. A good candidate is 8.1 - the percentage of the labor force which is unemployed.
from Tales from the Trail:
“Outside” spending for 2012 election already beats 2010
There are still six weeks before Election Day on Nov. 6, but spending by Super PACs and other outside groups has already hit $465 million, more than all of the entire 2010 campaign season, with Republican-aligned groups spending well over twice as much as those backing Democrats.
Democratic-aligned Super PACs have spent $108.4 million this year, and Republican-aligned Super PACs have spent $270.5 million, according to the Sunlight Foundation, which tracks political spending. The total independent expenditures by other Super PACs was $15.6 million.
from Tales from the Trail:
Rock band The National to headline Obama fundraiser in Ohio
Music group The National and Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz will headline a fundraiser benefiting President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in Cincinnati on October 5, a donor to the campaign said.
The early-evening event in downtown Cincinnati will feature an acoustic concert by the alternative rock group, which is known for brooding songs like “Bloodbuzz Ohio.” The Brooklyn-based band, which formed in Cincinnati, has been Obama’s opening act a number of times since his first White House run in 2008.
from Tales from the Trail:
Pelosi confident Democrats will win back House, says Obama will “win big”
U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said on Friday that despite predictions by so-called experts to the contrary, she's confident her party will win back the chamber in the Nov. 6 election.
"The momentum is with us," Pelosi said. "Our motto is don't agonize, organize."
Pelosi declined to say, however, if she would remain as her party's House leader if Republicans retain control of the chamber.
from Tales from the Trail:
Hollywood actors pose for Obama campaign social media drive
President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is launching a "celebrity portrait shot" social media drive, a source close to the campaign said, drawing again on its base of Hollywood supporters to drum up enthusiasm for the Democratic incumbent ahead of the Nov. 6 election.
The source said that the initiative would bring between 20 and 30 actors – such as KaDee Strickland from medical drama "Private Practice," Ashley Fink of TV musical series “Glee,” and Penny Marshall of the classic sitcom "Laverne & Shirley" – to a production studio in Culver City, California to be photographed in black and white for roughly 15 minutes on Friday.
from Breakingviews:
Obama may find an exceptional friend in Facebook
By Robert Cyran
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
U.S. President Barack Obama might find an exceptional friend in Facebook. The social network’s second-in-command, Sheryl Sandberg, should be on the short list for a top economic job if he wins a second term in office. Yet she’d potentially give up some $130 million in unvested equity to take the job. Her boss Mark Zuckerberg could bridge the gap. But it may cost Facebook shareholders dearly.
from Tales from the Trail:
This election, abortion rights activists are looking for just a few good women
This fall, there is going to be a relatively small group of women voters who may be very, very sick of hearing from NARAL Pro-Choice America by Election Day on Nov. 6.
Like most of those involved in politics this election year, the abortion rights advocacy group says that women will determine the outcome of the contest on Nov. 6 between Democratic President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.
